09.04 The United Nations has announced its highest level of emergency for the humanitarian crisis in Iraq.
According to AP, The U.N.'s declaration of a "Level 3 Emergency" will trigger additional goods, funds and assets to respond to the needs of the displaced, said UN special representative Nickolay Mladenov, who pointed to the "scale and complexity of the current humanitarian catastrophe".
The Security Council said on Wednesday it was backing a newly nominated premier-designate in the hope that he can swiftly form an "inclusive government" that could counter the insurgent threat. However, yesterday, Iraq's current prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki said he would not leave until the court ruled that he should.
9am Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of the Iraq crisis. The latest from The Telegraph's US Correspondent David Millward is that a mission to rescue tens of thousands of Yazidi refugees is “far less likely” the Pentagon said as it assessed a report from marines, special forces and aid experts who briefly landed on Mount Sinjar.
The Pentagon believes the number of refugees still trapped on the Mount Sinjar is down to the low thousands.
Meanwhile it emerged last night the SAS was on the ground in Iraq as part of the operation to rescue 30,000 “desperate” Yazidi refugees, it emerged on Wednesday, as US forces landed on Mount Sinjar.
American officials confirmed that a combined contingent of 20 US Marines, special forces and USAID disaster assistance experts had "briefly" landed on Mt Sinjar just hours after David Cameron pledged that Britain would help with the mission.
No comments:
Post a Comment